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The battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry, commanding over half of the global market share in China, has garnered significant attention in response to escalating concerns about climate change. NCM (LiNi x Co y Mn z O 2) batteries, prized for their high energy density, are pivotal in this industry. However, their production relies on critical metals, posing environmental challenges. Recycling processes aim to address this issue by recovering critical metals from end-of-life batteries. The industry is updating from NCM 111 to NCM 811 batteries to enhance energy density and reduce costs, but the key factors influencing the material flows and environmental impacts remain uncertain. This paper aims to identify the key factors contributing to the potential differences in material flows and environmental impacts introduced by the NCM battery upgrading in China. Following the new energy vehicle sales projections in China until 2035, a dynamic material flow analysis was employed to calculate material demands, recovered amounts, and substitution rates for various upgrading scenarios. The study reveals that the majority of retired batteries until 2035 were sold between 2022 and 2029. Material substitution rates prove to be more sensitive to the upgrading scenario than the lifetime and growth rate of BEVs. Faster NCM 811 penetration results in over 2.5 times more saved cobalt demand compared to additional nickel demand. A life cycle assessment of NCM batteries reveals a 39% lower global warming impact for NCM 811 compared to NCM 111, highlighting environmental benefits from increased energy density and reduced cobalt consumption. The energy density improvement contributed 85%, while the alteration in material composition contributed 15% to the global warming reduction in NCM 811. Recycling emerges as a crucial strategy in mitigating environmental impacts across all categories, particularly addressing eutrophication, previously deemed challenging due to the difficulty in recovering Li 2 CO 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Significantly changes of LAI and GPP mostly occurred in eastern and southern China. • Divergence between LAI and GPP were found in regions with dense vegetation coverage. • The importance of VPD, SM, and PT to vegetation indices increased as latitude decreases. Climate change notably boosts terrestrial hydraulic redistribution pattern, which could directly affect the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of vegetation productivity. However, the spatiotemporal evolution pattern of long-term hydrometeorological controls of vegetation productivity is still not fully understood. This paper comprehensively explored the impacts of hydrometeorological controls on leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) in China during 1982–2015 using both satellite observations and reanalysis. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD), evapotranspiration (ET), precipitation (PT), and soil moisture (SM) were used as representative indicators during investigation. The dynamics of LAI and GPP displayed increasing trends on the whole. And significantly changes mostly occurred in eastern and southern China, accompanied by moderate to dense vegetation coverage. An accelerated increasing trend for LAI could be observed since September 2003 (+0.175 per decade), while the growth rate of GPP (+16.76 g C/m2 per decade) basically maintained stable. In terms of hydrometeorological controls, VPD and ET showed consistently increasing trend and SM presented falling trend in the context of warming climate. Through analysis of feature importance index established by Random Forest, the importance of VPD, SM, and PT obviously increased as latitude decreases, which implied the high sensitivity of vegetation in semi-humid\humid regions to water availability. Additionally, divergence between LAI and GPP can be found in southern Tibet Plateau region and coastal regions, which provides compelling evidence that in the case of high LAI, increasing LAI could weaken the improvement effect on GPP. Findings of this study is expected to promote the understanding of long-term vegetation responses to hydrometeorological variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The extent of flooding in China is greater than in any other country. • Nearly 66% of China's landmass is submerged by flooding. • Financial toll of flooding accounts for approximately 1.42% of the annual GDP. • Various forms of climatic change contribute to flooding. The extent of flooding in China is more significant than in any other country. Our research reveals that approximately 66 % of China's landmass is submerged by flooding, affecting about 50 % of the population. Furthermore, the financial toll of flooding now accounts for approximately 1.42 % of the annual gross domestic product (GDP), which is almost 40 times higher than the corresponding figure for the United States. We have observed that Zhengzhou city in Henan province, which faced a devastating flood in 2021, received a significant amount of rainfall, specifically a total of 552.5 mm within a 24-hour period. The floods in Henan province in 2021 caused considerable damage, including impacting nearly 15 million people, resulting in almost 400 deaths, damaging over 10,000 square kilometers of agricultural land, causing almost $19 billion in economic losses, and leading to the collapse of over 35,000 households and damage to various properties. In a similar manner, the significant flooding that occurred in southern China in 2020 impacted approximately 7.1 million individuals across eight provinces and resulted in 54 fatalities, the collapse of 6,700 houses, and incurred a direct economic loss of US$3.33 billion. We found that rainstorms have significantly increased to 10 % in the last 60 years in China. In this paper, we delved into exploring the existing published articles, reports, and government and authoritative legal texts to analyze the causes and impacts of flooding in China's flood-prone regions and potential mitigation strategies to reduce the repercussions of distressing flood events. We believe this study will help policymakers by providing new insights while formulating policy to reduce the loss caused by high-level flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the development of China's economy, the use of fossil energy has become more and more, resulting in increasing carbon emissions. CO 2 emissions have caused global warming, threatening humans and creatures on Earth. In order to effectively suppress the growth of carbon emissions, it is necessary to analyze the influencing factors of carbon emissions and apply them to predict carbon emissions. This paper presents sixteen potential influencing factors and uses grey relational analysis to identify the factors that have a strong correlation with carbon emissions. The principal component analysis (PCA) is used to extract the four principal components, which reduce the redundancy of the input data. The long short-term memory (LSTM) method is established to predict carbon emissions in China. We use back propagation neural network (BPNN) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) to compare LSTM method. The simulation results show that the prediction accuracy of carbon emissions based on LSTM is better than that of BPNN and GPR, indicating the effectiveness of PCA and LSTM in prediction of carbon emissions. Finally, this paper provides the theoretical basis for China to reduce carbon emissions by studying prediction of carbon emissions. Highlights • Grey correlation analysis is applied to identify factors associated with carbon emissions. • Principal components analysis is used to simplify input variables and obtain the main factors affecting carbon emissions. • The long short-term memory model is used for the first time to predict carbon emissions. • The direction of reducing carbon emissions in China is given by analyzing the prediction results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing contribution of refrigeration systems to global warming has led to widespread demand for low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants as alternatives. This paper proposed a comprehensive environmental assessment method for evaluating the carbon footprint of units charged with low-GWP refrigeration. Experimental and numerical studies were used to investigate the carbon footprint impact of using alternative refrigerants at different ambient temperatures in China. Initially, the model was validated through experimental case studies on the use stage of cold storage units. Subsequently, a comparison was made between the cooling capacity (CC) and energy efficiency ratio (EER) of cold storage units charged with different refrigerants. Additionally, the impact of alternative refrigerants in the use stage was analyzed by numerical calculations, and the adaptability of the cold storage unit to the ambient temperature and the national energy structure was also studied. The results indicate that among the four stages of the cold storage unit, the use stage is the hotspot of carbon footprint due to the large amount of energy consumption and the existence of refrigerant leakage and other behaviors. Utilizing low-GWP alternative refrigerants could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the cold storage units' use stage by 10.56%–16.39%, thereby lowering the whole stage carbon footprint. Furthermore, the ambient temperature and national energy structure could also effectively reduce the carbon footprint of cold storage units' whole stage by 1%–27.17%. Furthermore, after adopting low GWP refrigerants, the life-cycle cost (LCC) of the units have also decreased by 6.1%–12%. Taking into account both environmental impact and economic considerations, it is recommended to directly replace R404A with R448A in the units in regions where the average ambient temperature is above 15 °C. • A carbon footprint evaluation model for the units was established. • Influencing factors of carbon footprint are studied numerically and experimentally. • By GHG assessments, the optimal refrigerant and external conditions were determined. • Alternative refrigerants reduce carbon emissions for cold storage units by 8.8%–24.92%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient and effective new energy vehicles (NEVs) power batteries recycling (PBR) plays a critical role in reusing scared metal resources, decarbonizing the transport sector and climate warming mitigation. The policy consistency from up to down in a big country lays a solid foundation for sustainable recycling. However, quantitative comparison or evaluation of power batteries recycling policies (PBRPs) from various levels of government is insufficient in the existing literature. In this paper, text mining technology and the Policy Modelling Consistency Index (PMC-Index) model are used to evaluate the longitudinal and horizontal consistency level of China's 13 central PBRPs as well as 25 local PBRPs from 2016 to 2022. The findings demonstrated that: (1) Longitudinally, the local governments present a high consistency level with the central government in the objective and content of PBRPs via comparison analysis of high-frequency words, which embodies the local governments firmly advocating the national strategy for retired battery recycling. (2) Horizontally, the number of central PBRPs with excellent and good consistency is five and seven, respectively, while the number of local PBRPs with excellent and good consistency is six and seven, respectively. One central and twelve local PBRPs are of acceptable consistency, indicating significant disparity in local governments' policymaking ability. (3)The drawbacks of those acceptable policies attribute to the policy tendency of traceability management, policy timeliness, policy content in terms of incentives and business recycling model. Finally, management implications were summarized to optimize China's PBRPs system and PBR performance based on the empirical result, an overview of PBRPs and recycling practices in developed countries. [Display omitted] • We evaluate the China's central and local power batteries recycling policies. • The PMC-Index model is used to quantitative analysis of policy consistency. • The longitudinal and horizontal consistency of battery recycling policies is good. • We outline the power battery recycling policies and practice in the EU and the U.S. • Carbon footprint requirements should be added in China's battery recycling polices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • We incorporate a variety of principles and indicators into an improved ZSG-DEA model. • We conduct a multi-criteria allocation of China's CEA by 2030 to provincial shares. • We measure the total and per capita space for carbon emissions by province. • All provinces reach the DEA frontier with different CEA ranging from 4.21 to 16.77 Gt. • Differentiated provincial reduction policies are the key to achieving China's INDCs. Abstract Accelerating global warming has suggested the importance of controlling greenhouse gas emissions associated with human activities. In striving to fulfill the Paris Agreement, China has announced its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) aimed at reducing its carbon dioxide (CO 2) emission intensity by 60–65% in 2030 against the level of 2005. However, China's INDCs cannot be fulfilled without formulating appropriate schemes for the allocation of carbon emission allowance (CEA) at sub-national scales. To help close the gap in our knowledge, this paper starts with measuring the overall CEA of China by 2030, and then proposes a science-based scheme for CEA allocation by developing an improved zero sum gains-data envelopment analysis (ZSG-DEA) model. It demonstrates that the final CEA of some northern provinces can be cut down as compared to their initial shares and, conversely, most southern provinces experience an increase in their CEA. Comparing the final share of CEA by province with current carbon emissions, we observe that provinces with abundant energy reserves, such as Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, tend to be operating in a state of overshoot in terms of space for carbon emissions (SCE). In contrast, there remains SCE when it comes to Guangdong, Hunan, Fujian, etc. The remaining provinces, such as Heilongjiang, Hebei and Ningxia, are close to the break-even point. In view of the differing SCE of individual provinces, common but differentiated policies for CO 2 emission control would be the key to achieving China's INDCs. The research findings lay a scientific basis for the Chinese government to make its INDCs come true through inter-provincial collaboration on emission reduction, but also serve as a reference for fueling further scientific discussions and development of schemes for the allocation of responsibility for carbon emissions at multiple scales within and beyond China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increased attention on the global warming phenomenon, greenhouse gas management has become an important issue, especially in textile industry. Therefore, an effective greenhouse gas performance appraisal system is necessary for textile enterprises to assess their sustainability and recognize their weakness in the greenhouse gas management. However, few studies have identified the comprehensive connotation of the enterprise’s greenhouse gas management. And there is no relevant research targeting at analyzing the textile enterprises’ greenhouse gas management performance. This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the greenhouse gas management and establishing an evaluation system for textile enterprises. The system divided the evaluation into four categories, including Greenhouse gas management commitment and policy, Greenhouse gas management target and program, Implementation and operation, and Corrective action and public reporting. Literature review, expert interview and on-site investigation were used to supplement the indicators and the weights were determined by Monte Carlo-Analytic Hierarchy Process method. Case studies were conducted on eight typical Chinese textile manufacturers to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation system. The result shows that the new evaluation system can reflect the actual greenhouse gas emission performance of textile enterprises. And the system not only allows textile enterprises to recognize their weakness in the greenhouse gas management and better improve their management level, but also provides reference and experience for other industries to draw upon in establishing the greenhouse gas evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming can be solved with carbon trading. When carbon emissions become a commodity, it can be a powerful motivator for companies to optimize production capacity and innovate technologically. The goal of this paper is to examine the way in which China's carbon emissions trading policy (CET) influences firm technological innovation in seven pilot regions, using a sample of firms in eight high-carbon industries. We employ difference-in-difference (DID) as well as DID-based propensity score matching (PSM-DID) models to investigate the influence of China's carbon emission policy on firms' technological innovation by using 4745 observations of 749 A-share listed firms in eight high-carbon industries in mainland China from 2007 to 2021. According to the findings, China's CET policy significantly boosts firms' technological innovation, and this beneficial effect persists even after a series of robustness tests that change the policy's implementation year and the technological innovation measure. Further analysis shows that this positive effect is heterogeneous across high-carbon industries and firms with different ownership. In addition, based on the external governance perspective, we find that CET policy performs better in firms in high-carbon industries with a sizable portion of ownership held by institutional investors. This study suggests the effectiveness of CET policy in promoting firms' technological innovation, confirms empirical evidence for Porter's hypothesis, and provides a basis for Chinese firms to achieve their emission reduction targets by improving technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming caused by the excessive combustion of fossil fuels has become the focus of the international community. China's carbon emission reduction policy plays a vital role in international climate change, carbon emission neutrality and domestic environmental pollution control. This paper summarises the progress of China's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) pilots from 2011 to 2021, including trading volume, carbon emissions price, and the effect of carbon emission abatement. By calculating the carbon emissions intensity decrease rate of China's ETS pilot and non-pilot regions, the ETS and carbon emissions tax are compared in terms of emission reduction effectiveness, emission reduction cost and implementation resistance to provide theoretical support for the Chinese government to select and develop carbon emission reduction tools. The development of the Clean Development Mechanism in China is also compared with China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER), and the offsetting rules of CCER are summarised. After the whole analysis and assessment, the results show that from 2013 to 2018, the average carbon emissions intensity decline rate in the ETS pilots was 7.3% and that in non-pilots was 4.29%. Some problems of China's carbon emissions trading market are also concluded. The trading volume is small (only 43.4 × 106 t in 2020) and is discrepant greatly in the different ETS pilots. The carbon emissions price is low (only 33.45 Yuan/t in 2020), with high volatility and large price differences among the ETS pilots. Based on the existing problems, this paper proposes some suggestions for improving China's emission trading market and provides theoretical and decision-making support for promoting carbon emission reduction and neutralisation for China. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production consumes a large amount of water consumption and generates huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Quantitative study of impact food wastage imposing on water and greenhouse gas emissions contributes to public awareness that food wastage will further worsen the resource shortage and climate warming, reducing food wastage accordingly. This paper evaluates the impacts of food wastage in the consumption stage on water resources and the environment in China. The result indicates that in the year 2010, the wastage of major food in China was around 62818 M kg in the consumption link, accounting for 14.5% of the total food production, of which the plant food wastage takes up the majority. The loss of water resources (blue water plus green water) caused by food wastage is 60502 Mm³, more than 10% of the country's total water use. Food wastage has a serious impact on agricultural non-point source pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a grey water footprint of 16292 Mm³ and 60.85 M ton of carbon emissions. Taking regional differences of food consumption into consideration, the proportion of water footprints and carbon emissions in the eastern and southern developed areas is relatively higher, while the plant food takes a relatively larger share in water footprints and carbon emissions in the western and central provinces. Reducing food waste is important to remove unnecessary burdens on the environment and natural resources. The optimization of resource utilization in the process of food production is conducive to effectively reduce water footprints and carbon emissions of food; healthy diets shall be popularized among citizens so that the animal food consumption which causes more water footprints and carbon emissions can be decreased, alleviating resource and environmental burdens through reduction of the wastage in food consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional precipitation patterns may change in a warmer climate, thereby increasing flood and drought risks. In this paper, annual, annual maximum, intense, heavy, moderate, light, and trace precipitation are employed as indicators to assess changes in precipitation patterns under two scenarios in which the global mean temperature increases by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C relative to pre-industrial levels using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM). The results show that annual precipitation in China will be approximately 2.5% higher under 1.5 °C warming relative to the present-day baseline (1980–2009), although it will decrease by approximately 4.0% under an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. This trend is spatially consistent for regions with annual precipitation of 400–800 mm, which has experienced a drying trend during the past half century; thus, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C may mitigate these drying conditions. The annual maximum precipitation continues to increase from present day levels to the 2.0 °C warming scenario. Relative to the baseline period, the frequency of trace and light precipitation days exhibits a negative trend, while that of moderate, heavy, and intense precipitation days has a positive trend under the 1.5 °C warming scenario. For the 2.0 °C warming world, the frequency of days is projected to decrease for all precipitation categories, although the intensity of intense precipitation increases. Spatially, a decrease in the number of precipitation days is expected to continue in central and northern China, where a drying trend has persisted over the past half century. Southeastern China, which already suffers greatly from flooding, is expected to face more heavy and intense precipitation with an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. Meanwhile, the intensity of intense precipitation is expected to increase in northern China, and the contribution of light and moderate precipitation to the annual precipitation is expected to decrease in southeastern China. Therefore, flood risk in northern China and drought risk in southern China should draw more attention for a global air temperature increase from 1.5 °C to 2.0 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surge in energy consumption and CO 2 (carbon dioxide) emissions is exacerbating global warming. The Chinese government has promised to reduce CO 2 emission by 60%–65% per unit of GDP over the 2005 level by around 2030. Analyzing the factors influencing CO 2 emissions is one of the key aspects involved in effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we add climatic factors based on socio-economic factors, and adopt the extended STIRPAT model to investigate the mechanism driving emissions by the co-action of natural and socio-economic factors. The results show that the 1995–2014 emissions in China's Zhejiang province had an upward trend with growth rates varying between intermediate periods. The order of the factors' elasticity coefficients is urbanization rate (0.181) > GDP per capita (0.180) > population (0.177) > energy intensity (0.170) > trade openness (0.170) > cooling degree days (0.127) > mean temperature anomaly (0.116). Economic development and urbanization were the main factors promoting CO 2 emissions in 1996–1999, while economic development and foreign trade were the main factors in 2000–2014. Policy makers should pay more attention to keeping a healthy pace of economic development, introducing more low energy consumption and low pollution enterprises and encouraging technological innovation. Improving the quality of urbanization, guiding a sustainable lifestyle, adjusting the structure of foreign trade and curbing energy intensity are also expected to reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid permafrost thawing triggered by heat release from the buried warm-oil pipeline would result in the instability of the pipeline, posing a potential risk of an oil spill in permafrost regions. Therefore, how to precisely control the ground temperature to mitigate pipeline foundation permafrost from thawing is of significant importance. Thermosyphon is a widely-accepted and extensively-used countermeasure against permafrost thawing in permafrost engineering. This paper presents 3-year (2015–2018) monitored data of ground temperature and geophysical survey results conducted by electrical resistivity tomography in April 2018, to investigate the thermal stabilizing effect of thermosyphons installed nearby the China-Russia crude oil pipeline (CRCOP) and the influencing factors. Furthermore, numerical simulation tests were conducted to evaluate their long-term cooling applicability and to optimize their layout parameters. Field observations show that the thermosyphons can cool down and even freeze the thawed soil layers around the CRCOP, prohibiting the infiltration of water into the thawing front to some extent and effectively mitigating the rapid thawing of permafrost beneath the pipeline. The performance of the thermosyphons is greatly influenced by the method and time of thermosyphon installation, as well as layout parameters including the number and longitudinal spacing. Two pairs of thermosyphons with a shorter spacing are unable to control the thawing of the underlying permafrost due to the non-anticipated higher oil temperature, the thermal erosion of water ponding, and climate warming. The simulated results indicate that thermosyphons perform well in the first 5 years after installation. Thermosyphon lowers the mean annual temperature of soils surrounding it by about 2 and 1.4 times when the evaporator section length is increased by 50% and the longitudinal spacing is decreased by 0.5 m, respectively. The application of thermosyphons has proven its strength for thermally stabilizing the pipeline foundation permafrost along the CRCOP. • 3-year ground temperature data and geophysical survey results are presented. • Thermosyphon can mitigate the rapid thawing of permafrost beneath the pipeline. • Thermosyphons performs most significantly in the first five years. • Lengthening thermosyphon and decreasing spacings are favorable for the better cooling effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since coal will be widely used in the next decades, mainly in the developing countries such as China and India, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies will have a key role in the containment of global warming. This paper presents a techno-economic comparison between the most promising power generation technologies for a CO 2 -free power generation in a short-term future. In particular, three different power generation technologies have been considered in their conventional (without CCS) and CO 2 -free configurations: (a) ultra supercritical (USC) pulverized coal combustion, (b) oxy-coal combustion (OCC) and (c) integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Process simulation, based on Aspen Plus and Gate Cycle commercial tools, allows to calculate plant performance, including the energy penalty due to the CCS system (10.9% points for USC and 8.7% points for IGCC). In parallel, a detailed economic assessment shows that, among the commercial-ready technologies, USC could be the most convenient solution for power generation without CCS (presenting a levelized cost of electricity – LCOE – of 38.6 €/MW h, significantly lower than 43.7 €/MW h of IGCC), whereas IGCC becomes competitive for CO 2 -free systems (with a LCOE of 59.6 €/MW h, to be compared with 63.4 €/MW h of USC). Moreover, oxy-coal combustion, which is currently not mature enough for commercial-scale applications, promises to become strongly competitive for CCS applications due to its relatively low levelized cost of electricity (62.8 €/MW h). This kind of analysis typically presents strong uncertainties, due to the variability of several key parameters (e.g. fuel and CCS prices, determined by the fluctuation of the international markets, or an improvement of the technologies). Therefore, a sensitivity analysis has been done to determine the effects of these potential fluctuation or the improvement on the economic performance of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane (CH 4 ), the second largest greenhouse gas emitted in China, hasn’t been given enough attention in the country’s policies and actions for addressing climate change. This paper aims to perform a bottom-up estimation and multi-regional input–output analysis for China’s anthropogenic CH 4 emissions from both production-based and consumption-based insights. As the world’s largest CH 4 emitter, China’s total anthropogenic CH 4 emissions in 2010 are estimated at 44.3 Tg and correspond to 1507.9 Mt CO 2 -eq by the lower global warming potential factor of 34. Energy activities as the largest contributor hold about half of the national total emissions, mainly from coal mining. Inherent economic driving factors covering consumption, investment and international exports play an important role in determining regional CH 4 emission inventories. Interregional transfers of embodied emissions via domestic trade are equivalent to half of the national total emissions from domestic production, of which two thirds are energy-related embodied emissions. Most central and western regions as net interregional CH 4 exporters such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have higher direct emissions, while the eastern coastal regions as net interregional importers such as Guangdong and Jiangsu always have larger embodied emissions. Since China’s CH 4 emissions have significant contributions to global climate change, a national comprehensive action plan to reduce CH 4 emissions should be designed by considering supply-side and demand-side emission characteristics, mitigation potentials and emission responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, comprehensive attention has been attracted to global warming. Meanwhile, China is a country with huge energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Therefore, it is urgent for China to reduce the air pollutants embodied in each unit of a good for a less greenhouse gas earth. In this paper, air pollutants embodied in goods consumption as well as import-export trade in China was accounted in 1995–2009. Besides, we checked the structural decomposition analysis of emissions' variation. The results showed: (1) in 1995–2009, air pollutants embodied in goods for consumption and import-export trade in China displayed a rising trend. Emission of carbon dioxide was the largest and methane, carbon monoxide, sulphur oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, nitrous oxide were in proper sequence based at the average level. (2) Air pollutants embodied in goods exported were larger than those in imported and difference among nations existed. (3) The percentages of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds embodied in Construction were larger than in other departments on the consumption side, while percentages of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds embodied in Electrical and Optical Equipment was bigger on the trade side. (4) Emission reduction techniques reduced air pollutants embodied in goods consumption and import and export trade in China. Consequently, China ought to pay attention to emission reduction of carbon dioxide and raise awareness of air pollutants controlling, especially in Construction, Electrical and Optical Equipment and other departments. More importantly, China ought to strengthen cooperation with other nations in emission reduction and developing technologies so as to cut down air pollutants, not only for China but also for the earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reserves and exploitable capacity of the wind power resource in China are both ranked first in the world and could be developed to strengthen China’s energy security and mitigate global warming. Carbon footprint accounting of wind farms is vital for large-scale wind energy exploitation. This paper establishes a systematic accounting framework with life cycle assessment (LCA) and input–output analysis (IOA) for the overall carbon footprint of the life cycle of a typical wind farm. Carbon emissions from the construction, operation, and dismantling phases are considered in the LCA of the wind farm. Then, each expense of the wind farm is treated as a change in exogenous demand for the output of the corresponding economic sectors according to the IOA. In addition, the virtual carbon footprint from peak regulation triggered by the on-grid fluctuation of wind power is incorporated. The results show the total carbon footprint of the studied wind farm is 1.45 × 10 4 tCO 2 over the 21-year lifetime. The construction phase accounts for the largest fraction (76.74%), followed by the operation phase (15.32%) and dismantling phase (7.94%). According to the IOA, the indirect carbon footprint of the wind farm is greater than the direct footprint. The “Smelting and Pressing of Metals” sector that produces the steel and copper used to manufacture the wind turbines dominates the carbon footprint. The virtual carbon footprint of coal-fired power for wind power peak regulation is estimated to be 2.08 × 10 3 tCO 2 , which is close to that of the operation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of household carbon emissions (HCEs) has become one of the most important topics in sustainability research due to the growing awareness of its significances in responding to global warming. This paper aims to identify the trends and characteristics of HCEs research for the period 1993–2019 through the bibliometric analysis approach. The impacts of most productive journals, countries, institutions and authors are evaluated by citation analysis, while the co-authorship network between various countries, institutions as well as the co-occurrence among different keywords are presented. The results of this paper provide a detailed picture on HCEs-related articles from 1993 to 2019. Both the number of publications on HCEs and the cooperation among countries and institutions have increased during the period. Keyword analysis suggests that the revelation of current status of HCEs and corresponding influencing factors are the main lines of HCEs research, and the prediction of HCEs should become the focus of future research. The valuable results obtained from this study can help the academic professionals keep informed of the latest developments in the HCEs-related field. • We employed bibliometric analysis to examine the evolution in HCEs Research. • HCEs research is at its rapid growth stage of development. • USA and China are the most active countries in HCEs research. • The quantification of HCEs and corresponding influencing factors are the main line. • The evolution trend of HCEs should be the focus of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts resulting from global warming severely hamper the healthy development of terrestrial vegetation ecosystems. This paper defines a terrestrial vegetation ecological drought index, i.e., the Standardized Water Supply–Demand Index (SSDI), based on the water balance method using the same calculation model as the SPEI. The theory of run is used to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of the drought characteristics in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). The results show that (1) the drought events monitored by the SSDI were in good agreement with historical drought events, and the correlation coefficient between SSDI and NDVI (0.94) was significantly higher than that between SPEI and NDVI (0.88). (2) About 55.4% of the regions in the YRB experienced more than 13 droughts, and about 41.4% of the regions had an average drought duration of more than 3.1 months. In the northern part of the YRB, droughts tend to develop in a short-term high frequency, while in the southern part of the YRB, there is a long-term low-frequency development trend. Nearly 24.5% of the regions have an average drought intensity of more than 1.4, and most of them are located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. (3) Over the last 18 years, about 79.5% of the regions in the YRB showed an increasing trend in SSDI, of which 36.8% showed an increasing trend of more than 0.04/yr. In addition, 40.4% of the regions showed a significant upward trend. Precisely analyzing the spatiotemporal variation of drought characteristics in the YRB is critical for drought risk assessment and sustainable development of water resources and could provide a theoretical basis for effective water resource allocation and drought relief. • A new drought monitoring index, i.e., the Standardized Water Supply–Demand Index (SSDI) was defined. • SSDI can effectively monitor drought events. • SSDI is more suitable for monitoring ecological drought. • Drought of vegetation ecosystem in the Yangtze River Basin was assessed and analyzed with the SSDI. • It provides a theoretical basis for drought management and water allocation in the Yangtze River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with global warming, China has promulgated Enhanced actions on climate change : China ’ s intended nationally determined contributions and will start the national carbon emissions trading market in 2017. Carbon emissions are distributed by the form of free quota and paid quota. However, few literatures have focused on how the economy and the environment would be changed by the change of free quota ratio. This paper establishes the 10 scenarios of different free quota ratio of carbon emissions rights and uses a dynamic, recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate the carbon emissions trading market, to explore the relationship between free quota ratio and carbon trading price, and the impact of carbon trading scheme (ETS) on China’s economy and environment. The results show that free quota ratio will not have a direct impact on gross domestic product (GDP) and other economic and environment indicators but carbon trading prices. The prices and the rate of free payment in the current pilot cities in China are still relatively conservative. It is possible to reach emission peak, 8.21 billion ton, in 2025 and accumulative CO 2 reduction from 2017 to 2030 is 20.02 billion tons, or 59.60% of 2010 world’s total CO 2 emission. Cement, minerals, electricity and nonferrous metals under ETS will suffer great losses, so subsidy should be considered. Finally, we suggested that China should reduce the total carbon rights to increase the carbon price in 2017, and gradually reducing the proportion of free quota, from 90% in 2017 to 50% or less in 2030, by which the peak year of CO 2 emission can meet in 2025. We also suggest that ETS is an effective strategy for CO 2 reduction and the ratio should be gradually reduced in ETS to prevent violent fluctuation of carbon price in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent and the determinants of global climate change beliefs. In contrast to former studies for the U.S. and other western countries, we focus on China due to its crucial role in international climate policy in conjunction with its vulnerability to global warming. The empirical analysis is based on unique data from a survey among more than 1000 adults in five Chinese cities. In line with former studies, our results reveal that the vast majority of almost 90% of the Chinese respondents believes in the existence of global warming. This seems to be a convenient and necessary basis for the support of costly public adaptation activities in China. Our econometric analysis reveals that already perceived experiences with extreme weather events (and particularly heatwaves) alone are strongly correlated with climate change beliefs and that physical or financial damages due to these events lead to even stronger relationships. Our estimation results additionally suggest females as well as people with a lower education, in medium ages, with higher household incomes, and from Chengdu or Shenyang to be more skeptical toward the existence of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since carbon emissions are considered to contribute the lion's share in global warming, extensive studies have been devoted to measuring the carbon emissions abatement cost in various ways. This paper derives the shadow prices of China's aggregate carbon emissions at provincial levels by using directional output distance function and Shephard output distance function. The empirical results indicate that the shadow prices estimated by the directional distance function with directional vector of (1,−1) are significantly higher than those estimated by Shephard distance function, which implies that the green production technology is very expensive for the developing country of China. In addition, the shadow prices of carbon emissions present a rising trend during the sample period, which implies that it is increasingly costly for China to regulate CO 2 emissions. Moreover, the shadow price is positively correlated with regional economic development levels. Generally, the shadow price of the high income regions is significantly bigger than that of low income regions. Therefore, China should promote regional scheme of carbon emissions reduction, such as regional carbon emissions trading scheme, to fulfill its ambitious target of carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abatement of carbon emissions is an important way to alleviate global warming. It is therefore crucial to explore the factors behind the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement (CPCEA). However, existing research mainly focused on the factors that promote national, provincial, city-level, and industrial carbon emissions reduction, without looking at the micro-company level. In response to the research gap, this study therefore explored the drivers of CPCEA using panel data from 736 listed companies in China. This study used the logit regression to examine the effects of pre-identified factors on the CPCEA. The results indicated that political ties, corporate scale, industry category, and regional disparity have significant impacts on the CPCEA. Contrary to expectations, environmental regulation was not found to affect CPCEA. Based on the findings of this study, five policy implications to improve CPCEA in China were proposed. This paper presented empirical evidence to promote CPCEA. Additionally, the results have important practical implications and priority guide for carbon emissions reduction in China and around the world. Image 1 F09F • Political ties are negatively related to the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement (CPCEA). F09F • Corporate scale is positively related to the CPCEA. F09F • Companies in the higher carbon industries and companies in the more developed region have stronger CPCEA. F09F • Environmental regulation has no significant impact on promoting CPCEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate global warming, CO 2 emission reduction has become an urgent issue in the energy sector. In China, coal-to-gas, carbon capture and renewable energy utilization are important measures available among various low-carbon plans. However, inadequate gas supply, unclear utilization methods of captured CO 2 , and curtailment of excessive wind and solar power have hampered the effective implementation of the above measures. To solve this issue, this paper presents a coupling model considering power to gas (P2G) technology and carbon capture power plants (CCPP), and extends it into an integrated energy system (IES) including electricity, thermal and gas, then proposes an economic and environment-friendly scheduling model at a high wind power penetration level. Through the coupling of CCPP and P2G in IES, most of CO 2 emitted by the system can be captured and sent to the P2G facility to produce synthesized gas, which provides a new idea of utilizing CO 2 rather than storage. The synthetic gas can be provided to the system to reduce the external gas dependency. In addition, the simulation results also show that the ability of the system to absorb renewable energy is significantly enhanced with the presence of CCPP and P2G. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions has become a paramount problem for all countries to solve. The construction industry emits 36 percent of the GHG in all sectors globally. China is the largest carbon emitter in the world, and Jiangsu province has been used as a test bed for reforming and developing modern construction industry in China. The aim of the study is to explore the driving factors of the total carbon emissions from the construction industry (CECI) in the provincial region using a hybrid Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model. The findings of the study indicate that: 1) Indirect and operational CECI account for the largest proportion (52.22% and 46.02% in 2016 respectively); 2) The driving factors of CECI in Jiangsu province are the area factor (contribution from 2005 to 2016 is 100.22%) and the output value intensity factor (86.56%) while the restraining factor is the carbon emission intensity (−80.35%). Discussion and implicated policies, such as improving the energy efficiency of related industries and using green building materials have been elaborated at the end of the study. The decomposition and calculation method presented in this paper provides a useful tool for policymakers to evaluate CECI of a province or state and formulate appropriate carbon policies to reduce emissions and promote low-carbon development in a region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is vital for human's sustainable development to control global warming well below 2 °C compared to pre-industrial levels. In this paper, four scenarios, namely baseline (BAS) scenario, carbon capture and storage (CCS) scenario, high electricity consumption (HEC) scenario and renewable energy (REN) scenario, are developed to estimate the energy demand and carbon emission during 2020–2050 in transitional China. Furthermore, the health co-benefits of different pollutants reduction are further estimated. Our results show that the final energy demand of China will increase steadily in the BAS scenario, reaching approximately 5200 million tons of coal equivalents (tce) in 2050. While it is likely to peak around 3500 million tce in 2035 if industry and energy structure reform is actively implemented. The CO 2 emissions will stabilize at 10 billion tons in the BAS scenario. The CCS, HIG and REN scenarios can all achieve the CO 2 emission target in China with the constraints of temperature rising no more than 2 °C in 2030. Only the REN scenario, however, can achieve the 2 °C target in the medium term. Regarding health co-benefits, in 2050,102.67, 187.11 and 222.84 billion USD are gained in China under the CCS, HIG and REN scenarios, respectively, compared to the BAS scenario. Another important finding is that industry, electricity conversion and transportation sectors have the greatest health co-benefits in China, and NO x reduction plays a dominant role, which will reduce 291,000 mortality cases in the REN scenario in 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-step econometric model and a nonlinear mediating effect model are employed. • There is an inverted U-shaped association between environmental regulation and green technology. • A U-shaped association between environmental regulation and carbon intensity is investigated. • Green technology is a mediator of the impact of environmental regulation on carbon intensity. • There are prominent differences in mediating effect between developed and developing regions. Environmental regulation and green technology are important to mitigate global warming, whereas few studies explored the role of green technology in environmental regulation on carbon intensity. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the relationship among environmental regulation, green technology, and carbon intensity, and assumes that green technology is a potential mediator of the impact of environmental regulation on carbon intensity. The advanced SBM model and the factor analysis method were performed to measure the relationships. To explore the mediating effect of green technology, the two-step econometric model and the nonlinear mediating effect model were applied to a panel dataset of 30 provinces in China spanning the period 2005–2016. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green technology, and a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and carbon intensity. Green technology has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity. This proves that green technology is an important mediating variable on the relationship between environmental regulation and carbon intensity. Moreover, the current environmental regulation intensity lies before the inflection point of both the inverted U-shaped and the U-shaped curves. The effects of environmental regulation on green technology and carbon intensity in developed and developing regions follow an inverted U-shaped, and a U-shaped curve, respectively. Furthermore, the mediating effect in developing regions is significantly larger than that in developed regions. Finally, policy implications are given to reduce carbon intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing global warming and environmental degradation, green and low-carbon development modes have been increasingly widely accepted worldwide. This paper investigates the factors influencing green coal logistics by considering China's large and medium-sized coal enterprise groups as the questionnaire survey object, and it empirically explores the effects of these influence factors on the willingness to implement green coal logistics using a structural equation model. The results show that (1) internal motivation, support of external conditions and related subject influences have positive influences on the willingness to implement green coal logistics indirectly by promoting the general benefits, (2) internal barriers exert negative influences on the willingness to implement green coal logistics indirectly by driving the general benefits, (3) factors with positive influence, from strong to weak, are internal motivations, support of external conditions and related subject influences, and it turns out that the general benefits of green logistics has significantly positive effects on the willingness to implement green logistics, and (4) the policy system could directly affect the willingness to implement green logistics, which does not occur through the green logistics benefits. • The factors influencing the willingness to implement green coal logistics were investigated in China. • Internal motivation, support of external conditions and related subject influences have positive influences on the willingness of green coal logistics. • The logistics benefits is an important weighing factor for the willing of green coal logistics.. • Government plays a key role in the development of green coal logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming, resulted from greenhouse gases emission, has significant impacts on natural ecosystem and economic development. Construction is a leading industry in China's economy with high carbon emissions. Improving the carbon emission efficiency and investigating the driving factors of carbon emission efficiency in China's building industry are very important for the sustainable development of construction industry and the goal of China's carbon emission reduction. This paper measures the total-factor carbon emission efficiency of construction industry from 2003 to 2016 by applying Super-SBM DEA approach. Then the interior driving factors and cross-industrial shock effects of carbon emission efficiency are investigated by industry GVAR model. Empirical results show that the carbon emission efficiency in China's construction industry is low with a downward trend. With regard to interior driving factors, technological progress and energy structure adjustment can promote the carbon emission efficiency of construction industry, but the economic scale with extensive development mode exerts a certain negative influence. From the perspective of cross-industrial driving factors, economy scale, energy structure and technological progress play an important role in the carbon emission efficiency in manufacturing and electricity/gas/water industry, while relatively faint in other industries. Inter-industrial economy scale and energy structure except for transportation industry exert negative effects on carbon emission efficiency, whereas the impacts of exterior technological progress of other industries except for the mining industry are positive. In order to promote industrial carbon emission efficiency, the carbon reduction mechanism for the common but differentiated responsibilities among industries should be established. • The carbon emission efficiency of China's construction industry is low. • Internal technological progress and energy structure adjustment promote the carbon emission efficiency of construction industry. • Cross-industrial driving factors economy scale and energy structure have negative effects on carbon emission efficiency. • A common but differentiated responsibility mechanism for carbon emission reduction should be established among industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freight transport is an increasingly important contributor to global warming. With the projected development of international trade, finding the most energy efficient ways of service intercontinental trades is a key challenge. China-Europe containerized trades are among the most important in this setting. The typical structure of the supply chains associated with this trade is that containers are stuffed in China and then cargos are subsequently cross-docked at major European logistics hubs or distribution centers in the destination countries for further road transport to the final retailing points. This solution may not be optimal from an environmental perspective. To pursue an increasingly sustainable supply chain solution, early movers in the market have adopted an alternative solution that is characterized by upstream buyer consolidation and downstream rail-based intermodal transport. This paper develops a set of mathematical models for analyzing the environmental saving potential of such alternative solutions, encompassing relevant energy use and energy mix data of all the legs and nodes in the supply chains. The empirical analysis is based on a case obtained from a Swedish retailer with a chain of retailing points in Scandinavia and Poland. From an activity-based approach, our findings suggest that upstream buyer consolidation may facilitate the integration of rail and road transport in the destination country, increase container utilization, replace 20-foot containers by 40-foot containers and eliminate the extra de-/re-consolidation activity in the traditional solution, thereby reducing CO 2 emissions of the supply chain. This, more efficient supply chain solution, may facilitate a modal shift in the downstream part of the supply chains, which may be attractive to logistics providers, retailers and customers in search of ways of curbing CO 2 emissions. The models and analytical framework developed may also be used by practitioners and researchers for analyzing other alternative supply chain designs. • A specified framework for the estimation of CO 2 emissions for intercontinental supply chains is developed. • Direct & indirect emissions at each node and leg of the supply chains are considered, including road, sea and rail transport. • A real world case is provided to illustrate how the model framework could be applied in a concrete and realistic setting. • The research analyzes the environmental impact of upstream buyer consolidation. • Important factors influencing supply chain environmental performance are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]